In honor of Pride Month 2022, I wanted to give a behind-the-scenes look at the John Rechy papers which I’m currently processing. John Rechy is a native El Pasoan who is recognized as a pioneer LGBTQ author. In 1963 he …
Tag: Archives

From Politics to Poodles: A Look into Molly Ivins’ Personal Library
Written by Wittliff archivist, Karen Sigler, This article was originally published in the Society of Southwestern Archivist and now resides in Texas State Universities digital archives. If the world were given your personal library, what would it tell them about …
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9/11: A Reflective Pause
Photographer Eric O’Connell photographed the chaos and atrocities of September 11, 2001 and survived. Speaking with him recently about the upcoming twentieth anniversary, he said “it brings him reflective pause on what happened to him personally” and added, “that all …

“It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” in Tennessee and Texas
By Wittliff staff member, Library Specialist, Sherri Turner-Herrmann. Rock and roll hit me like a freight train early on. When I was 8, my cousin introduced me to Alice Cooper and that’s when the first train hit. Shock rock, hard …
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Re-discovering Peter Pan at The Wittliff
By Wittliff student worker, Eric Robertson-Gordon. Growing up, my childhood was filled with movies. My father would often show me and my sister movies that he remembered loving when he was a child. My dad was a cinephile and it …

Waylon and Lefty: Marine Corps pitch men?
The forgotten 60-second Marine Corps. recruiting spot fades in with the familiar symphonic chorus of “MacArthur Park” – “Someone left the cake out in the rain . . .” But the voice is not that of actor Richard Harris, who …

Digital Treasures: Here today, here tomorrow.
The Digital Preservation Coalition cites November 7th as World Digital Preservation Day. It is just another day here at The Wittliff Collections, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to share with you some of our ongoing digital …

In Luck with the Red Headed Stranger
The Wittliff joined Willie Nelson and hundreds of his fans for a screening of a newly restored copy of the 1986 film “Red Headed Stranger” at his Luck ranch outside of Austin. The ranch buildings were constructed for the film, …

The Boys Who Wrote the Songs
The Rogers & Hammerhead Show aired from 1996-1997 on the Austin Music Network on cable access TV. Freddy Powers and Bill McDavid created the show to shine a spotlight on songwriters who developed country music in Texas—and whose songs …

Willie Nelson OBJECTified
(by Katie Salzmann) We never know who might request to use material from our archives, and earlier this summer the folks at the television show “OBJECTified” reached out to us for images of Willie Nelson to complement their hour-long interview …